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Summer Nights... Tell Me More, Tell Me More Did You Get Very Far?

Another summer rolls around, we´re nearing the end of school and rushing around to find proper black shoes for the end of term dance, a waltz, my 12-year-old is doing next week.

Last year´s shoes, worn once to a wedding are, of course, too small. The markets and even Carrefour only have pumps and sandals and I´m getting into trouble from my youngest who is starting to panic (me too).

And it´s hot. Around 33ºC and the forecast is getting hotter. I love summer but complain too. The nights of star-gazing, patio-sitting, wine-sipping in shorts and vest until one or two are here now.

Hot puts me into a lethargic holiday mood, thank goodness nearly all my English lessons have finished, saying that a few summer ones are yet to start but in the mornings.

I´m also in planning mode, off to England for a few days at the end of next week then we´ve some campsites to inspect and a glampsite to review, all in the name of work.

Yurt Glamping

Then a holiday to (don´t laugh) Fuengirola. I´m not really looking forward to the location but have an 80-year old birthday to celebrate - my mother. Normally they come and stay with me, but at this time of year it is just too hot.

Last time they came in September she got heat stroke. Which is to be expected as she never goes outside at home these days.

When I told a Spanish friend where I´m going she laughed and said I´d hate it. Not a great omen! I´m also keen to visit Gibraltar and yet again several people have said don´t go.

It´ll be what it is and away from the intense Jaén heat to the humid heat of the Costa del Sol. Don´t worry - I´ll tell you all about it.

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Today I’m talking to Natali Drake, aka author N J Simmonds, about the first book in her new Fantasy Romance Thriller series ‘The Path Keeper’ part of which is based in Andalucia and so caught my interest and desire to read it.

Over to Natali...
‘The Path Keeper’ is your first novel. How did it feel to be offered a three book deal with Accent Press on your first writing attempt?

Surreal. I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember, but I didn’t take it up professionally until 2012 (I’m a freelance writer). In September of that year the idea for ‘The Path Keeper’ began niggling away at me and I decided to start a novel in secret. In 2015 I also co-founded The Glass House Girls to which I’ve contributed more than a hundred articles and helped exercise my writing muscles. By the time the book was finished I had the confidence to seek an agent and a year later, after having received forty ‘no, thank you’ emails from publishers, I finally got a yes. I was stunned but also felt relieved,…

Typical plant-filled street with window bars and perfectly clean, I love these narrow Andalusian streets. Tiles, bricks and white-washed walls all add to its charm. This one is in the coastal town of Estepona in Malaga province.